Launch of Generic resource to help sport leaders

British Blind Sport Expand Education Library.

British Blind Sport, the National Disability Sport Organisation committed to enhancing and improving sport and physical activity for people living with sight loss, is pleased to announce the publication of its fifth Educational Resource.

The ‘Visually Impaired Friendly Sport’ Resource offers in-depth guidance and advice to help sport providers learn more about the impairment and how to adapt and modify sport to ensure any sports or physical activity session is inclusive and accessible to a person with a visual impairment.

‘Visually Impaired Friendly Sport’ follows a series of sport specific resources published by British Blind Sport over the last 2 years. This resource was developed as a reaction to feedback from parents of children with a visual impairment, who find that their children are often left out of mainstream PE lessons or sports sessions.

Jointly funded by Scottish Disability Sport, Guide Dogs UK and Blind Children UK, each organisation hopes that ‘Visually Impaired Friendly Sport’ will enhance sport and physical activity for VI people by educating the sport and PE workforce.

- Adapt and modify sports and physical activity to include visually impaired people into mainstream sessions

- Understand the pathways available for VI people

British Blind Sport Chief Executive Officer, Alaina MacGregor says:

"We are delighted to include ‘Visually Impaired Friendly Sport’ into our library of educational resources for teachers and coaches of adults and children living with sight loss. Our resources are used across the UK in schools and sports clubs to assist others to enable visually impaired people become more active. The resources were initially developed as a reaction to feedback parents of children with a visual impairment, who found that their child is often left out of mainstream PE lessons. These early experiences are not helped when VI adults are experiencing similar issues in sports clubs later on in life. We have such positive feedback from coaches and teachers of sport who all want to help change this by using the resources to develop their skills and knowledge to increase participation in VI sport."

”We are delighted to be working in partnership with British Blind Sport and our Scottish partners to offer this exciting and innovative resource. Scottish Disability Sport has delivered disability inclusion training across Scotland to both the education and sports sector and the addition of the Visually Impaired Friendly Sport Resource will provide additional support and guidance for those actively including pupils, athletes and players with visual impairments.”

VI Friendly Sport is available online to download and is also available in hard copy. BBS will be working with partners to distribute the resource to schools, clubs and coaches. To request a hard copy of the resource please contact info@britishblindsport.org.uk or 01926 424247

British Blind Sport would like to thank it’s partners, Scottish Disability Sport, Guide Dogs UK and Blind Children UK for support in producing this resource, with special thanks to Goalball UK and ECB (England Wales Cricket Board) for contributions.